Is Corzine Going To Bank of America?

The rumor on Wall Street is that outgoing New Jersey governor Jon Corzine might be on the short list to replace Ken Lewis as CEO of Bank of America.

Charlie Gasparino mentioned it on CNBC today, although he emphasized that the odds are still in favor of an inside candidate. The governor's staff won't confirm or deny the story.

We did a bit of digging and discovered that Corzine is potentially interested in the job. A person familiar with the matter says that Corzine is considering it.

We first mentioned this possibility the day after the election. Corzine is basically out of government jobs. He's been a Senator and a Governor, and his history with Goldman Sachs precludes any job inside the Obama administration.

One question is whether Corzine would be willing to relocate to Charlotte, where Bank of America is based. We're betting the answer to that is that he wouldn't. So the follow-on question is: would Bank of America let Corzine run the bank from New York. They recently built a huge headquarters near Times Square that certainly could serve at the headquarters of the CEO. But the old-boy North Carolina network at Bank of America would certainly resist the move, fearing that distance from the chief would sap their influence within the bank.